Battle of Hanoi (1946)


On December 19, 1946, Viet Minh soldiers detonated explosives in Hanoi, and the ensuing battle, known as the Battle of Hanoi marked the opening salvo of the First Indochina War.

History

The Viet-Minh set off explosives, at 20:03 in the evening, after smuggling them past French Army guards into the city's power plant. The explosion plunged Hanoi into darkness, and throughout the city the Viet-Minh began attacking French military positions and French homes. Surviving French troops, alerted by friendly spies, gradually gained a numerical superiority. French artillery shelled the city, and house to house searches were conducted searching for the Viet-Minh leadership.
Ho Chi Minh was at the time ill with fever, and Võ Nguyên Giáp ordered "all soldiers... to stand together, go into battle, destroy the invaders, and save the nation". Eventual French superiority in firepower forced the Viet-Minh to withdraw to the mountains 80 miles to the north of Hanoi. However, it took the French 60 days to gain complete control of the city, which bought enough time for the Viet-Minh to evacuate all of its central offices, as well as most of their main forces.
After expunging the Viet-Minh from the city, the French demanded the military surrender of their opponents, but the latter refused. The United States, alarmed at the incident, dispatched Abbot Low Moffat on a special mission to Saigon and Hanoi to consider a negotiated referendum. However, the realization that the Viet-Minh would not accept any compromise, and the fact that the US did not want to formally mediate between the two sides, led to the US abandoning the idea.

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